Queen of Pentacles: Women Surrealists & The Tarot of Pamela Coleman Smith A renewed interest in the occult, specifically tarot cards, influenced avant-garde visual artists of the twentieth century, in particular, women Surrealists. Pamela Colman Smith fundamentally changed the iconography of the tarot through her illustrations. I argue that Leonora Carrington, Leonor Fini, and Remedios Varo developed their visual iconographic expression as a result of occult teachings. These women Surrealists pursued a particular interest in feminine archetypes, androgynous characters, and iconography in their paintings that developed from the legacy of Colman Smith’s tarot. I assert that the language of the tarot is key to unlocking the painting practices of these artists.